Writing on the beta boards:

My 2 cents:

Some of the players here point to the elite classes as the “possible endgame”. Instead I fear them, because they can possibly disrupt the game for everyone. I really hope that Jedis in SWG have taught how these ideas for “elite players” can damage the game beyond repair.

We cannot comment this because right now we don’t know how they’ll be implemented (even if I fear the apotheosis of grind). The point is that:
– Or they are worthless paths enstricted with rules so they’ll be mantained as “rare”. Like it’s happening in SWG.
– Or they’ll be simply an extension of the treadmill.

The first case is a danger. The second is pointless.

Why pointless? Because we already have a ladder to climb, this ladder has already its issues with balance, boringness and grind. Some of the players complain about the fact that WoW feels like a single-player game. We need an opening to really create a mmorpg, with the players involved together and playing in a world. With an interaction. Something solid and not something “faked” on the lore-level. Where interesting fiction is turned into obvious and stale gameplay.

What I mean is that the game has already its ladder. Blizzard shouldn’t plan the endgame by building and offering another one.

We climb a ladder, we finally reach the top, we look around expectantly and we see… another ladder.

If I was working at Blizzard I’d try to work and evolve the game into a different, positive direction. Where the world and the players start to work together. To realize the potential that is specific to this genre and makes the expereince more involving than a tweak to a single-player game.